The 10 most expensive watches in the world.

What do you spend on a watch? $100? $250? Or do you really splurge and fork out $5,000 for that prized Rolex or Tag Heuer that really announces, “I’ve arrived”?

Well even with the most expensive designer fashion or luxury watches we see in stores or ads in magazines, we’re not anywhere near the stratosphere of the world’s most expensive time pieces. These chronographs are more bejeweled, handcrafted works of art than just watches, but if you have a few million dollars to spend – or much more – you may find one on your wrist!

10. FRANCK MULLER AETERNITAS MEGA 4

Price tag: $2.7 million

Designed by Swiss watchmaker Franch Muller in 1991, the watch with the full name “Aeternitas Mega 4 Grande Sonnerie Westminster Carillon” has 36 complications and 1,483 individual components, earning it the honor of being the world’s most complicated watch.

9. PATEK PHILIPPE 1953 HEURES UNIVERSELLES MODEL 2523

Price tag: $2.9 million

Patek Philippe & Co. first started making watches in Switzerland in 1839, and is one of the highest quality makers of timepieces still today, guaranteed to appreciate in value. This model has an 18k gold case, shows several time zones, and a polychrome dial that details a map of North America.

8. PATEK PHILIPPE 1895/1927 YELLOW GOLD MINUTE REPEATING

Price tag: $3 million

This watch was part of the Henry Graves, Jr. signature collection, built in 1895 with the case completed in 1927, it recently went for $2.994 million at a Sotheby’s auction.

7.  LE BRASSUS TOURBILLON CARROUSEL

Price tag: $4 million

The Swiss company that produced this masterpiece, Blancpain, has been around since 1735 but continues to innovate. With this watch, they combined two traditional methods of combatting the degenerative effects of gravity on time keeping, tourbillon and carrousel methods. It’s the first watch in the world to use both, making it an instant classic of quality.

6. LOUIS MOINET “METEORIS”

Price tag: $4.6 million

This chronograph is truly out of this world – and that’s not just my opinion, but fact! That’s because this watch, built as a series of four tourbillons in conjunction with Luc Labenne, is built with pieces of moon rock, but also a meteorite from Mars and an Asteroid!

5. BREGUET & FILS, PARIS, NO. 2667 PRECISION

Price tag: $4.7 million

Horophiles (time piece connoisseurs) appreciate the quality and luxury produced by the Swiss Group, and Breguet & Fils is a branch of that tree, founded in 1775 by Abraham-Louis Breguet. This watch is 18k gold with two timepieces and two movements. 

4. PATEK PHILIPPE 1943 WATCH REF. 1527

Price tag: $5.5 million

Built in 1943, this was the most expensive wristwatch in the world at the time. It features an 18k yellow gold case and a silver matte dial that accentuates its chronograph, perpetual calendar, and moon phase display.

3. PATEK PHILIPPE CALIBER 89 POCKET WATCH

Price tag: $6 million

Designed to commemorate Patek Philippe’s 150-year anniversary in 1989, this is the world’s most complicated pocket watch with 33 complications and 1,728 complications, weighing more than 2 pounds and taking the design team more than five years of research and 4 years of manufacturing to build.

2. PATEK PHILLIPE HENRY GRAVES SUPERCOMPLICATION

Price tag:  $11 million

This watch comes not only with a big price but a fascinating story. Back in 1927, Banker and watchmaker Henry Graves Jr. entered a contest with his friend, James Ward Packard of the Packard Car Company, to produce the world’s most complicated watch. After four years, Graves emerged victorious when he produced this gold pocket watch with two faces and 24 complications. When it sold at auction, Sotheby’s appraised it at $5 million but it actually sold for a then-record $11,002,500.

1. THE GRAFF DIAMONDS HALLUCINATION 

Price tag: $55 million

We saved the best (and most expensive) for last with this only women’s watch o

n the list. Encrusted with rare gems and a face of diamonds set in platinum, this one-of-a-kind watch (they really only made one!) debuted last year at the iconic Baselworld watch show, becoming an instant legend – and a price tag that makes it the most expensive watch in the world.